Celebrate - Our 41st Gold Awards ceremony!

It was time to roll out the red carpet and celebrate again this week as we hosted the first of our Autumn Gold Award Ceremonies and welcomed 200 children, parents and carers and school staff to the Town Hall to celebrate taking part in over 100 hours of learning in their own time.

Children from Angram Bank Primary School receive their awards

This ceremony was a little special as it was the first time children were invited to wear their Sheffield CU cap and gown throughout the ceremony to receive their awards. We have been collecting feedback about this development for a while and the response has been overwhelming positive!

We wouldn't be able to introduce this fantastic opportunity to our award winners without the support of the Sheffield Hallam University Outreach team who have very kindly sponsored the gowns to allow us to purchase enough for all our award winners!

Some very proud parent/carers with their award winner

Some of our fantastic Gold Award winners find their names in the programme!

Children from 12 schools attended along with their parents and carers and were presented with their awards by the Lord Mayor, Councillor Talib Hussain, Dee Desgranges, Assistant Director of Lifelong Learning, Skills and Communities, Councillor Anne Murphy and Peggy Cooke from Sheffield Hallam University.

Children from Concord Junior School receive their awards

During the ceremony, there was a fantastic performance from Hype Dance, one of our brilliant Learning Destinations as well as some student speakers from Brunswick Community Primary School who spoke about their out of school activities and being a member of Sheffield CU.

Pupils from Hype Dance perform at the ceremony

Students from Brunswick Community Primary School talk about their CU activities

HUGE congratulations to our fantastic award winners, their parents/carers and school staff. We are so very very proud of all of you!

Visit our Facebook page to view all the photos from the event: Sheffield CU Facebook

Celebrate - Our 40th Gold Award Ceremony!

On the 14th October we worked in partnership with the Outreach at team at the University of Sheffield to host our 40th Gold Award Ceremony at Firth Hall, and it was our BIGGEST one yet! Over 200 young people from 4 secondary schools, and 89 primary and secondary students who have been collecting credits with their Passport to Learning at Learning Destinations across the city were invited to receive Gold awards for choosing to take part in over 100 hours of out of school activity.

Concord All Stars start the ceremony off with a real bang creating fantastic music using only dustbins!

The audience celebrate our award winners with a big round of applause!

Students from Firth Park Academy receive their Gold awards

There were fantastic speeches from Professor Zoe Ollerenshaw Senior Lecturer from the University of Sheffield, Sam Martin Assistant Director of Lifelong Learning, Skills and Communities, and Student Union Activities Officer Annie Gainsborough. We also had some spectacular performances from Concord All Stars, Sheffield Music Hub's Senior Flute Choir, and Sheffield Sea Cadets.

Sheffield Music Hub's Flute Choir perform to a full house at Firth Hall!

Children and young people who have been collecting credits using their Passport to Learning receive their awards

We also made a very special presentation to two of our fantastic award winners, who both managed to clock up a staggering 1000 hours of out of school activities to earn them our top award, the Gold Fellowship. Both students were presented with their CU certificates, and a special gift from the University of Sheffield.

Our Gold Fellowship award winners who have both taken part in 1000 hours of out of school activities

Students from Yewlands Academy receive their Gold awards

Sheffield Sea Cadets round off the ceremony with a brilliant performance

HUGE congratulations to our fantastic award winners, their parents/carers and school staff. We are so very very proud of all of you! A very special thanks to the University of Sheffield for hosting the event and to the Student Ambassadors who provided invaluable support during the ceremony.
Visit our Facebook page to view all the photos from the ceremony: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.978892965501012.1073741854.239129216144061&type=1&l=97a0706a3a

Planning your October half term fun?

There are some spooky happenings all across Sheffield this October half term - have you planned your holiday fun yet?

The October Children's University Passport to Learning newsletter which includes details of activities across Sheffield happening during the October half term is now available! Click HERE or the link on the side of these page to start planning now!

Children and young people who take along a Passport to Learning will be able to earn additional CU credits at these activities. There's also a list and contact details of our validated Learning Destinations.

During October 2015, there will be a number of FREE CU LIVE! activities as part of the Off the Shelf Festival taking place in the Winter Garden. Please see the newsletter for more details!

Knit one, pearl one...

One of our fantastic CU schools have been looking beyond the classroom into their neighbourhood for their latest CU activity. Gleadless Primary School have been working with their local community centre to deliver a knitting club to their children.

Children from Gleadless Primary School show off their knitted creations!

Members of the community centre were eager to pass on their expertise to children, so pupils and staff visit the centre each week to take part in their craft afternoon and learn some fantastic new skills as well as collect CU credits!

Organised by Mrs Rhodes in the junior office who liased with the community centre, the club has been very popular with both children, and staff! Catherine Udall, School Business Manager commented 'It's a lovely club and the members of the community centre are even trying to teach me how to knit too!'

Evidencing the impact - the Sheffield CU 2014 Participation and Performance Analysis

Did you know there are currently 30,662 children and young people in Sheffield with Children’s University (CU) credits? They have collectively clocked up nearly 1.5 million hours of learning in their own time. Also, 14,000 children and young people have a CU Passport to Learning which enables them to collect credits at validated ‘Learning Destinations’ (approved activity providers) across the city.

Any school, or Learning Destination will tell you that being part of CU and being celebrated and rewarded for taking part in out of school activities makes a difference.

  

Here in Sheffield, we do lots of work looking at the impact of participation in these activities, through lots of data analysis, but also through case studies and evidence collected from schools, providers, parents and the children themselves. With over 30,000 children and young people in our city with CU credits, we have a lot of information to work with!

We are very pleased and proud to share with you the 2014 Sheffield Children’s University Participation and Performance Analysis report which provides detailed evidence of the impact of Children’s University in Sheffield.

This builds on our previous reports and includes in-depth analysis of the impact of participation in CU activities on attainment and attendance using FFT estimates, and progress measures. It also includes anecdotal evidence of impact through a number of case studies from both schools involved with CU and Learning Destinations.

Impact on Pupil Premium, SEN and the most deprived (IDACI) children and young people in the city is also examined along with progression routes for post 16 students, which is included for the first time.

And the findings are fantastic! In 2014 at both primary and secondary, Sheffield children and young people involved in CU activities did better than their non CU counterparts and often exceeded their estimates. As they progressed through the CU Award levels, their performance improved, particularly once they had achieved the Gold Award for 100+ hours of participation. These findings are reinforced by previous local impact reports which have been produced in Sheffield on an annual basis since 2009.

So what are you waiting for? If your child is not already part of CU in Sheffield, it’s easy to get involved! Check to see if your school is signed up by asking school staff. To collect credits away from school, just pick up a Passport for £2 from Sheffield libraries. Your child can use their Passport at any validated Learning Destination across the city to collect one credit per hour, and earn CU awards, some of which are presented at special citywide award ceremonies.

You can find the report by clicking the link above, or the link on the right hand side of this page.

1.5 MILLION HOURS!

Well we are certainly starting the new academic year off with a BANG! We have done a quick count up this morning, and the children and young people of Sheffield have now collectively taken part in 1.5 MILLION HOURS of learning in their own time! That's 62,500 days, 8,929 weeks or 171 YEARS!

Since CU began in Sheffield, 30,898 children and young people have taken part in a wide range of exciting and fun learning activities out of school time and every single hour as been recorded, awarded and celebrated by Sheffield CU. What an amazing way to end the first week of term! 

Here's to a fantastic 2015/16!

CU Festival of Fun - tell us what you think!

Our first ever CU Festival of Fun was a great success!  Loads of you took part in the FREE activities on offer right across Sheffield and we've already received some brilliant photos from our Learning Destinations.










But we want to hear from you, the families that took part!











From chicken keeping at Heeley City Farm, to rugby with RuggerEds in Endcliffe Park, from detective work at Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet to singing, dancing and drama with a range of other Learning Destinations (and of course, lots, lots more!), thousands of CU credits were earned through your Passports to Learning.

 

We want to know what you thought about the activities and where and when they took place.  So PLEASE take just 5 minutes to complete our online survey.  All the feedback will be used to make recommendations for future events like the CU Festival of Fun - but they wont happen without your feedback.  There is a CU goody bag on offer for one lucky respondent who is chosen at random.

To take part in the survey, please click here: CU FESTIVAL OF FUN SURVEY

We'd like to say a huge 'thank you' to everyone who supported CU Festival of Fun in any way, but most importantly to everyone who took part, had fun, and learned lots along the way!

The summer isn't over yet though - there are still plenty of activities happening all over Sheffield and beyond where you can collect CU credits.  Download our Passport Activity Newsletter by clicking on the image to the right of this page, and visit our list of Learning Destinations on our website: www.sheffield.gov.uk/cu